The price of bitcoin has finally surpassed the $5K territory after a few teases this past spring and summer. During the earlier hours of October 12, bitcoin’s market value spiked past the $5,000 range and has reached an all-time high of $5846 per BTC across popular global exchanges. Bitcoin’s pathway to $6K is within sight.

The price of bitcoin (BTC/XBT) has touched a high of $5,846 as it has continued to climb in value relentlessly all day. Presently, bitcoin trade volume is strong with $3.4B in daily trade volume and hasn’t let up since the bull run started. A few hours after the quick jump to around $5,200-5,300 today there was a small amount of profit-taking and sell off, but it didn’t last long. Bitcoin’s price soared between 10-11 pm EDT as buyers hammered away at bids to the $5,800 zone. The high was followed by a significant drop back down to the $5,550-5,600 territory, at press time the market value seems to be consolidating in this region.

The Japanese Yen is still leading the global trade volume race, capturing 57 percent of bitcoin’s fiat exchange volume at the time of writing. The USD and South Korean Won follow the lead, as Europe and China trail a just a touch behind the top three countries in trade volume. Right now the top five exchanges processing the most bitcoin volume include Bitfinex, Bithumb, Bitflyer, Bitstamp, and GDAX. As the price lifted both cryptocurrency exchanges and the bitcoin network itself was quite busy. Network congestion has increased a bit, and there is currently 30-50K unconfirmed transactions waiting in the mempool.

Bitstamp order book is moving at lightning speed on October 12, 2017, at 10:45 pm EDT. The price spiked from $5450 to $5846 in just over an hour chewing through orders.

Technical Indicators

Right now the Relative Strength Index (RSI) is showing overbought conditions. Alongside this, the Stochastic is giving a variance in signals indicating buyers may remain in control. Order books on popular exchanges like Bitstamp are moving fast, and show significant resistance past the $5,800-5,900 range. Additionally, there are massive sell walls up to the $6,200 zone, but after breaking that pressure, bulls could take the good ship to $6,500 with fewer waves. Buying load is still on the upside as the 100 Simple Moving Average (SMA) is still coasting above the 200 SMA. A correction could be imminent at these heights, but order books show support levels around the $5,000-5,200 price regions. If the RSI oscillator continues to show overbought conditions and the Displaced Moving Average (DMA) support breaks $5150 a deeper correction may be in the cards.

Bitcoin hits a high of $5,846 on October 12, 2017.

The Verdict

Overall, the community doesn’t seem to be fearing the hard fork this November, as last August gave people an idea of what to expect. It seems markets are following last August’s bitcoin price rise as well, because bitcoin’s current value is increasing similarly just before the Segwit2x fork.

Further, mainstream media and big-name investors are flocking to the decentralized currency more and more these days. For instance, Bernstein, the New York-based team of Wall Street financial analysts toldBusiness Insider this week that bitcoin is a “censorship-resistant asset class.” This is just one of many mainstream investment types looking directly at bitcoin’s digital gold attributes. It’s safe to say at $5K+ per bitcoin the whole world has been noticing the crypto-asset’s new record.

Bear Scenario: As said above, at this price height a big sell-off should not be discounted. Some indicators show overbought conditions at the moment and the price rallied hard for the past 18-hours so far, so it’s likely exhaustion may come. A significant floor between $4800-5200 looks like a healthy correction, and if a bigger panic sets in — it could drop well below the sub-$5K zone.

Bull Scenario: The parade of bulls has to smash past significant resistance at the $5,850-5,900 region again without tiring out to get to some smoother seas. For now, it’s likely to be wavy and consolidate between the two key zones of $5,300-5,700. If a steady stream of buying continues to rally then $6,000 per bitcoin is not far away from this vantage point.

Where do you see the price of bitcoin heading from here? Let us know in the comments below.

Disclaimer: Bitcoin price articles and markets updates are intended for informational purposes only and should not to be considered as trading advice. Neither Bitcoin.com nor the author is responsible for any losses or gains, as the ultimate decision to conduct a trade is made by the reader. Always remember that only those in possession of the private keys are in control of the “money.”

Images via Shutterstock, Bitstamp, and Bitcoin Wisdom.

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